[152] The Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield frequently mentions attacks of illness about this time, “fitts of ague,” or gout, fever, and so on.
[153] At first the difficulty of obtaining the new coins caused some inconvenience, and several of Elizabeth’s Councillors were in favour (1562) of a fresh debasement of the coinage. By Cecil’s and Paget’s efforts, however, this was avoided, as it was feared that such a measure would cause disturbance. For the first year or two the demand was so great for the new money that the supply was quite inadequate to the demand, but the people greatly resented the idea of a fresh debasement.
[154] As early as 1555, in the reign of Mary, Cecil had been one of the original promoters and shareholders of the Russia Company, but he always steadily refused to share in privateering.
[155] The expedition and its object had first been suggested to Throgmorton in Paris by an old Portuguese pilot, named Captain Melchior, who had formerly lived for many years on the Sus coast and other parts of West Africa. He had been a pensioner of Francis I. and Henry II., but on the death of the latter, lost his pension. The King of Navarre (Anthony de Bourbon) supported him for a time, and then sent him with his scheme to Throgmorton, who referred him to Cecil. The expedition itself was unsuccessful, but was followed by others under the younger Hawkins, which established a lucrative trade in slaves and produce between Africa, the Spanish Indies, and England. There is an interesting paper in the Record Office, dated 27th May of the following year, 1562, when a Portuguese Ambassador was in England remonstrating against the despatch of a new expedition to Guinea. It is a full description of the coast by Martin Frobisher, who had been for nine months a prisoner of the Portuguese at Elmina. He shows that the Portuguese on the coast exercised no control outside of their forts, and were so detested by the natives that Frobisher and other Englishmen were employed as intermediaries.
[156] Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.
[157] Foreign State Papers.
[158] Foreign State Papers.
[159] Foreign State Papers.
[160] In 1559 Throgmorton speaks of the youth at that period as being of great promise—unfortunately unfulfilled.
[161] Foreign Calendar.